WASHINGTON — With markets rattled by the downgrade in the U.S. credit rating, President Barack Obama sought to reassure the public that America remains a “AAA country” and voiced hope that the news will prod the two parties to reach agreement on a long-term plan to cut the nation’s deficit.

Obama, in a Monday-afternoon speech that was part pep talk, said the country is still a safe bet for investors.

“That doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem,” the president said, speaking from the State Dining Room.

He said rising deficits can’t be ignored. In the second round of deficit-reduction talks that will play out this fall, he recommended an approach that would combine spending cuts with tax-revenue increases along with what he called “modest adjustments” to entitlement programs such as Medicare.

“I realize that after what we just went through, there’s some skepticism that Republicans and Democrats . . . will be able to reach a compromise,” he said. “My hope is that Friday’s news (from Standard & Poor’s) will give us a renewed sense of urgency.”

He mentioned that various commissions and congressional leaders have put out plans mirroring his own.

“So it’s not a lack of plans or policies that are the problem here,” he said. “It’s a lack of political will in Washington. It’s the insistence on drawing lines in the sand — a refusal to put what’s best for the country ahead of self-interest or party or ideology. And that’s what we need to change.”

AirPods have become a rare public misstep for Apple. In September, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed the earbuds as the entree to a wireless future, with seamless connection to an iPhone and a five-hour battery life.

The brokerage industry’s self-regulator has asked employees fired by Wells Fargo & Co. and stripped of their securities registrations to come forward if they have concerns over their treatment, the latest sign of growing scrutiny on the bank.

Ford Motor Co. is going ahead with plans to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico despite President-elect Donald Trump’s recent threats to impose tariffs on companies that move work abroad.